how to change default permissions with multiple users?

[Oats]

Hi-

my wife and i share a computer, but use seperate accounts for seperate mail accounts, etc. here is a problem that bothers me from time to time:

when one of us creates a new file/folder, by default it is read-only to the other user. we are both administrators on the machine, but still we run into permissions issues. for myself, i can override the settings for a particular file/folder by changing the permissions, but my wife is not so technical. we trust eachother and prefer to have complete access to eachother's files, since we share many.

is there a way to set default permissions for new files/folders to be more open, easier to share with multiple users?

also a related question i've had is, is it possible to share a common iphoto/itunes library between two different user accounts? for example, when one person uploads a new itunes album or new photos, for the other person's library to be automatically updated as well?

thanks.

 

[Compile 'em all]

TinkerTool can solve that permissions problem. Here is a quote from their FAQ:

Can I use TinkerTool to let Mac OS X create files with less strict permission settings?

Yes and no. In general, each application has to decide for itself which permissions to set when creating new files or folders. It is not possible to force a general default setting for all new objects. (This would create serious security holes in the operating system and would make Mac OS X unusable.)

However, many applications don't care about permission settings when creating new files. In this case, Mac OS X applies a default security restriction to the permission settings. While it is not possible to set a default for the permission settings themselves, it is possible to set a default for the security restrictions that are applied to the permission settings if the application doesn't set stricter permissions.

By default, Mac OS X will not allow that new objects have write permission for the owning group and other users. (Typical permissions are "owner: read & write", "group: read", "others: read".) You can for example relax this strict setting, removing the "don't allow write permission for the group" default. This is possible with TinkerTool's Permissions pane, available in Mac OS X 10.3 and higher: Remove the checkmark at "Group / Write file: Don't allow", log out, and log in.

If you apply this change, all applications launched via the graphical user interface of this user account will grant write permission to the group, unless an application itself decides not to grant write permission. In most applications, files will now be created with the setting "owner: read & write", "group: read & write", "others: read").

This preference has no effect on applications launched via a Terminal shell which includes the X Window environment in most configurations. These environments can use the Unix "umask" setting of the shell to achieve the same effect.

Note: Files created by an AFP (AppleShare) or SMB/CIFS (Windows) file server may override this default mechanism because the servers can be instructed to establish their own security policy. Refer to the file server documentation for more information.

 

[Oats]

i don't want to install tinkertool.

there should be a BSD unix based solution to this problem, shouldn't there? modify some script somewhere, execute a few terminal commands?

 

[Compile 'em all]

i don't want to install tinkertool.

there should be a BSD unix based solution to this problem, shouldn't there? modify some script somewhere, execute a few terminal commands?

I have no idea if there are any commands to do what you want. I assume tinkertool is an interface to some scripts it comes with, which in turn execute BSDish commands. Even if you find some commands that do what you want, you will need to them to be executed each time you boot OS X, which is not as easy as checking a checkbox in tinkertool.

 

[wickwood]

Same Exact Problem...Did you find a solution?

Hello Oats,

My wife and I have exactly the same problem, but I have yet to find a solution? Did you find one?

Thanks in advance,
Steve

Hi-

my wife and i share a computer, but use seperate accounts for seperate mail accounts, etc. here is a problem that bothers me from time to time:

when one of us creates a new file/folder, by default it is read-only to the other user. we are both administrators on the machine, but still we run into permissions issues. for myself, i can override the settings for a particular file/folder by changing the permissions, but my wife is not so technical. we trust eachother and prefer to have complete access to eachother's files, since we share many.

is there a way to set default permissions for new files/folders to be more open, easier to share with multiple users?

also a related question i've had is, is it possible to share a common iphoto/itunes library between two different user accounts? for example, when one person uploads a new itunes album or new photos, for the other person's library to be automatically updated as well?

thanks.